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Chapter 6: Charms and Sorcery
This chapter details the special powers that each of the Exalted possess.

Martial Arts
While other Charms express an Exalt’s innate power, martial art Charms are specialized combat
techniques that any supernatural creature can learn. Young Exalts usually learn martial arts from
tradition-oriented schools or lone instructors, but persistent students or prodigies may decipher a
style’s secrets through training manuals, oral histories, Wyld-touched dreams, First Age
memories, and other unusual sources.
Mortal martial artists can wield the weapons, ethos, and strategies of a given style, but only
supernatural beings can learn a style’s Charms. To learn a martial art Charm, a martial artist must
have complementary Abilities that support a style’s strategy and philosophy. If a Charm doesn’t
require specific complementary Abilities, dots from any of the style’s complementary abilities
can count toward the minimum total. To use a style’s Charms, the Exalt must wield weapons
with style-appropriate tags and avoid wearing armor forbidden by the style. A style also grants
improved weapon benefits upon learning any of a style’s Charms.
Martial art Charms have two unique modes: Celestial modes offer benefits for Abyssals,
Getimians, Infernals, Lunars, Sidereals, and Solars, while Terrestrial modes offer benefits for
Alchemicals, Dragon-Blooded, and Liminals. Exigents and other supernatural entities access
whatever modes best fit their nature, as decided by the Storyteller.
Crane Style
Crane style emulates the defensive grace of the crane, which warns attackers before punishing
their hostility. Crane students practice empathy, philosophy, and debate as rigorously as any
form or strike, for a well-placed admonition can halt a foe where fists might fail.
Crane Weapon Tags: Disarming, Natural, Shield. Crane martial artists prefer weapons that
excel at self-defense and render opponents toothless, such as war fans and hook swords. Many
martial artists wield both form weapons at once, backed up with graceful kicks and precise hand-
chops. The martial artist’s impeccable defense provides the shield tag even when unarmed.
Crane Armor: Crane style is incompatible with armor.
Complementary Abilities: Crane martial artists require some combination of Embassy,
Presence, and Sagacity.
Empowering Justice Redirection
Prerequisites: Close Combat 1, Complementary Ability Total 2
The Exalt exploits an opponent’s aggression.
Spend 1 mote on Step 1 of a withering attack against an opponent that attacked the Exalt (or an
ally the Exalt defended) since the Exalt’s last turn. The Exalt adds one success to their attack roll
and gains one additional Power if the attack succeeds. If the opponent’s attack succeeded, double
the successes and Power granted by this Charm.
Mastery (Terrestrial): If an opponent attacks a mortal or one of the Exalt’s Circlemates, this
Charm’s effects apply as if the opponent had attacked the Exalt.
Fluttering Cry of Warning
Prerequisites: Close Combat 2, Complementary Ability Total 3, Empowering Justice
Redirection
The Exalt shelters allies with preternatural alertness.
Spend 1 mote on Step 1 when taking the Defend Other action. Increase the Exalt’s Defense and
the defended ally’s Hardness by one each until the Exalt’s next turn.
Mastery (Celestial): The Exalt can activate this Charm on Step 2 of an attack against an ally to
reflexively defend that ally until the Exalt’s next turn.
Crane Form
Prerequisites: Close Combat 3, Complementary Abilities Total 5, Fluttering Cry of Warning
The Exalt assumes the bearing of the Crane, embodying elegance, not violence.
Commit 1 mote on Step 1 for the scene. The Exalt’s Defense increases by one, or by two against
opponents acting in opposition to the Exalt’s Virtues. The Exalt’s presentation is immaculate,
protecting their clothing and hair from stains and tearing. Once per round, when the Exalt
successfully defends against a close-range attack, they can spend 1 Power to make a
counterattack against the attacker on Step 8.
Mastery (Celestial): The Exalt can glide horizontally as a reflexive movement action. While
gliding, the Exalt can carry one ally they are defending.
Mastery (Terrestrial): The Exalt can counterattack ranged attacks by redirecting projectiles
back to their source. The Exalt uses Close Combat to do so and must successfully defend first.
This attack is treated as an unarmed attack out to Long range.
Humbling Enlightenment Commentary
Prerequisites: Close Combat 4, Essence 2, Complementary Abilities Total 8, Crane Form
The Exalt’s greatest weapon is wisdom, wielded with razor-sharp acuity.
Spend 1 mote on Step 1 of a decisive attack. When stunting this attack with analysis and/or
lecturing about an opponent’s fighting style and temperament, add two additional dice to the
attack’s damage roll. If the attack deals three or more damage, the Exalt may instill a Minor
intimacy by educating the opponent. This attack is never fatal, regardless of damage dealt — at
worst it leaves an opponent unconscious, with one health level remaining. This may be used
during a clash.
Mastery (Celestial): If the above stunt exploits an opponent’s Virtues or intimacies, apply the
highest relevant Virtue/intimacy penalty to the opponent’s Defense. The opponent can call on
other Virtues/intimacies to counter this penalty, but not to increase their Defense.
Mastery (Terrestrial): If the enhanced attack is a decisive counterattack against an opponent’s
decisive attack, the Exalt can use the Power that the opponent spent on the initial attack, instead
of spending the Exalt’s own Power.
Ebon Shadow Style
Ebon Shadow martial artists vanish into shadow and strike when least expected. Though
righteous killers designed the style in the First Age, Ebon Shadow style now belongs to knaves
and guilds of paid assassins. As the Solar Exalted return, so do memories of Ebon Shadow’s
grim legacy.
Ebon Shadow Weapon Tags: Concealable, Flexible, Natural. Ebon Shadow assassins keep
hidden blades at the ready and wield tricky weapons like chains and rope darts. They often coat
weapons with poison. Unarmed martial artists target weak points with cruel efficiency, giving
their unarmed attacks the piercing tag.
Ebon Shadow Armor: Ebon Shadow style is incompatible with armor.
Complementary Abilities: Ebon Shadow Exalts require Stealth.
Nothing but Shadows
Prerequisites: Close Combat 1, Stealth 2
The Exalt dominates the battlefield from hiding, fading in and out of sight.
Spend 1 mote on Step 2. Penalize the attack as if the Exalt had concealment. If the Exalt
successfully defends against this attack, add a two-die bonus to the Exalt’s Stealth rolls until
their next turn ends. This may be used during a clash as though it were a Step 3 Charm.
Celestial: If the Exalt successfully defends against the above attack, the Exalt may take an extra
reflexive movement action on Step 8.
Terrestrial: While Nothing but Shadows enhances the Exalt’s Stealth rolls, the Exalt can hide in
plain sight by faking their own death. Observers suffer a three-die penalty when trying to
diagnose or otherwise notice that the Exalt is still alive.
Ebon Shadow Form
Prerequisites: Close Combat 2, Stealth 3, Nothing but Shadows
The Exalt’s outline distorts and flickers like an inhuman shadow cast by an unsteady flame.
Commit 1 mote on Step 1 for the scene. The Exalt may calculate Evasion using Stealth instead of
Athletics. When the Exalt makes a decisive attack from concealment, that attack ignores soak
equal to the Exalt’s Essence. The Exalt’s Anima becomes dark and murky, and if the Exalt dies,
their body evaporates into greasy smoke, leaving behind no evidence of their identity.
Celestial: At the end of each round, if the Exalt is hidden from all opponents or has successfully
evaded all attacks made against them that round, the Exalt gains 1 Power.
Terrestrial: The Exalt may end Ebon Shadow Form and spend its committed mote on Step 6 of
an opponent’s decisive attack to add their Essence to soak. The Exalt can’t re-activate this
Charm on their next turn.
Throat-Slitting Shadow Strike
Prerequisites: Close Combat 3, Essence 2, Stealth 4, Ebon Shadow Form
The Exalt’s weapon is shrouded in darkness, closer and deadlier than their opponent can see.
Spend 1 mote on Step 5 of a decisive attack. Each extra success on the attack roll converts one
damage die into an automatic success. The Exalt can convert up to five dice into automatic
successes when attacking from concealment, or two dice otherwise. If this attack kills the Exalt’s
opponent, the corpse vanishes into smoke as described in Ebon Shadow Form.
Celestial: If the enhanced attack deals damage, the Exalt cuts away part of their opponent’s
shadow. The Exalt steals 1 mote, if the opponent has any motes. If the opponent does not, gain
Power instead.
Terrestrial: If the Exalt is in concealment, they may fashion a form weapon from their
opponent’s shadow to wield in the enhanced attack. If the enhanced attack deals damage, the
Exalt may keep the shadow-weapon for the scene, or until disarmed.
Mantis Style
Mantis style leverages painful joint-locks and forceful deflections to render opponents harmless.
Immaculate monks favor Mantis style as a nonlethal deterrent, but its strong fundamentals give it
widespread popularity.
Mantis Weapon Tags: Balanced, Flexible, Natural. Mantis martial artists wield sturdy,
versatile weapons, like batons, kama, nunchaku, and seven-section staffs. When left unarmed,
Mantis students use hook strikes — powerful and precise finger jabs — to strike weak points and
intercept attacks.While grappling, the martial artist may treat their natural attacks as medium
weapons.
Mantis Armor: Mantis style is incompatible with armor.
Complementary Abilities: Mantis martial artists require Physique.
Iron-Arm Block
Prerequisites: Close Combat 1, Physique 2
The Exalt diverts enemy hostility with firm block-counters.
Spend 1 mote on Step 2. The Exalt increases Defense by one and doesn’t lose Hardness from
concentrated attacks until after their next turn. When the Exalt flurries Defend Other action with
an attack, reduce the dice penalty to one die.
Terrestrial: If the Exalt successfully defends against an attack with Iron-Arm Block, they may
attempt a Disarm gambit as a counterattack on Step 8.
Crushing Claw Technique
Prerequisites: Close Combat 3, Physique 2, Iron Arm Block
The mantis catches prey with deadly speed and an implacable grip.
Commit 1 mote on Step 3 when initiating a grapple. If the grapple succeeds, add one success
when rolling to establish dominance or pin the Exalt’s opponent. While the Exalt dominates the
grapple, reduce their opponent’s Hardness and soak by two against the Exalt’s attacks.
Celestial: While the Exalt dominates the grapple, add the Exalt’s Force in bonus successes to
contested defense rolls.
Mantis Form
Prerequisites: Close Combat 3, Physique 3, Crushing Claw Technique
The Exalt assumes the fabled Mantis stance, arms outstretched and legs ready to spring forward.
Commit 1 mote on Step 1 for the scene. Increase the Exalt’s defense and soak by one each. If an
opponent has lower Power than the Exalt, or if the opponent is grappling with the Exalt, double
9s on the Exalt’s damage rolls against that opponent.
Celestial: When the Exalt deals damage with a decisive attack during a grapple, they may end
Mantis Form, spend its committed mote, and halve the attack’s damage in Step 7, rounding
down. This inflicts a wrenching injury that keeps the opponent from using one of their limbs
until the scene ends, or until they heal the injury’s health levels. The Exalt can’t re-activate
Mantis Form on their next turn.
Terrestrial: When the Exalt makes a decisive rush attack, add three dice to the attack’s damage.
Unfolding Retribution Strike
Prerequisites: Close Combat 4, Physique 4, Mantis Form
The Exalt unleashes countless blows sufficient to wear down the mightiest foe.
Spend 2 motes on Step 1 of a decisive attack. Halve the opponent’s Hardness and Soak against
this attack, rounding down. If the Exalt attacks a grappled opponent, this attack roll gains three
automatic successes. This may be used during a clash.
Celestial: If the enhanced attack inflicts damage against an opponent, set the opponent’s
Hardness to zero as if they’d suffered countless concentrated attacks until the start of their next
turn.
Terrestrial: If the enhanced attack incapacitates an opponent, the Exalt regains half the Power
spent on the attack, round up.
Righteous Devil Style
The Righteous Devil is a legendary figure who once scoured Creation’s frontiers of wickedness
and lawlessness. Students from all walks of life embrace the Righteous Devil’s duty to judge
evildoers. Righteous Devil martial artists who give in to wickedness remain just as dangerous,
creating Creation-spanning rivalries.
Righteous Devil Weapon Tags: Flame. Righteous Devil martial artists wield firewands and
other flame-discharge weapons. The Righteous Devil’s peerless firewand mastery adds the
balanced tag to their attacks. Unlike most martial arts, Righteous Devil style doesn’t allow
unarmed attacks.
Righteous Devil Armor: Righteous Devil style is compatible with light and medium armor.
Complementary Abilities: Righteous Devil martial artists require Presence and Ranged
Combat.
Blossom of Inevitable Demise
Prerequisites: Presence 1, Ranged Combat 2
The Exalt’s hands move faster than the eye can follow, raining fire upon the wicked.
Spend 1 mote on Step 1 when aiming a firewand attack. The Exalt may either double 9s on
damage or extend the firewand’s maximum range by one range band. If the firewand requires
reloading, the Exalt may also reflexively reload while aiming.
Solar: The Solar may activate this Charm when rolling Join Battle with (Finesse + Ranged
Combat). This adds automatic successes to the Join Battle roll equal to the Solar’s Finesse or
Ranged Combat, whichever is lower. Opponents with lower Join Battle results can’t use an
interrupt to act before the Solar during the first round of combat.
Righteous Devil Form
Prerequisites: Presence 2, Ranged Combat 2, Blossom of Inevitable Demise
The Exalt dons the majestic and terrible stillness of the Righteous Devil, whom the wicked dread.
Commit 1 mote on Step 1 for the scene. Opponents with Power lower than the Exalt’s Force who
begin their turn in close range of the Exalt cannot move away from her reflexively, and cannot
gain the benefits of cover or concealment. In addition, the Exalt may wield form weapons with
Close Combat as if they had the melee tag, similar to a staff, club, or spear.
Solar: The Solar gains extra attack dice when aiming: three dice at close range, two dice at short
range, and one die at medium range. She increases her Accuracy and Damage by one against
creatures of darkness (p. XX).
Burning Judgment Halo
Prerequisites: Presence 2, Ranged Combat 3, Righteous Devil Form
The Exalt rains fire upon the earth and walks through the purifying heat unscathed.
Spend 1 mote and 2 Power on Step 1. The Exalt creates a bonfire centered around them and
extending out to short range. This bonfire is an environmental hazard that deals three damage per
round, has difficulty equal to the Exalt’s Force, and has a duration of three rounds. The bonfire
doesn’t harm the Exalt or interfere with the Exalt’s visibility but counts as concealment for
attacks targeting her.
Solar: The Solar may spend 1 Anima and extend the bonfire out to long range, with damage and
difficulty reduced by one for each range band past short range.
Caress of 1,000 Hells
Prerequisites: Essence 2, Presence 3, Ranged Combat 4, Burning Judgment Halo
The Exalt’s flame is righteous and won’t harm those who repent.
Spend 2 motes on Step 5 of a decisive attack against an opponent that’s violated the Exalt’s
Virtues or intimacies. The opponent may repent for their crimes and immediately form an
appropriate major Intimacy, then pass out without taking damage from the attack, treating them
as though they were Incapacitated. If the opponent doesn’t repent, they suffer four dice of
aggravated damage in addition to the attack’s normal damage. These dice do not count toward
the usual limit and ignore Soak.
Solar: An opponent who wishes to repent must also accept an Intimacy of fear, awe, or guilt
toward the Solar. If the target is also a creature of darkness (p. XX) all damage dealt is
aggravated.
Snake Style
Snake style emphasizes swiftness and agility over strength. Students learn to target pressure
points and express venomous essence through their fingertips. Snake style is most popular in the
South and East, but as one of the oldest martial arts in Creation, it has practitioners everywhere.
Snake Weapon Tags: Disarming, Flexible, Natural. Snake martial artists prefer weapons that
can attack from multiple angles, such as hook swords and seven-section staffs. When unarmed,
martial artists rely on two-fingered jabs against pressure points and exposed tendons. Their fluid
movements give their unarmed attacks the flexible tag.
Snake Armor: Snake style is incompatible with armor.
Complementary Abilities: Snake martial artists require Athletics.
Serpentine Evasion
Prerequisites: Close Combat 2, Athletics 1
Ducking and weaving, the Exalt confounds all attackers.
Spend 2 motes on Step 2. Add one to the Exalt’s Defense and two to Soak.
Celestial: If the attacker has less Power than the Exalt, the Exalt may activate Serpentine
Evasion on Step 4.
Terrestrial: If the Exalt successfully defends against a decisive attack from an opponent with
lower Power, the Exalt gains 1 Power.
Snake Form
Prerequisites: Close Combat 2, Athletics 2, Serpentine Evasion
The Exalt assumes the sinuous and hypnotic movements of the snake, ready for attack and
retreat.
Commit 1 mote on Step 1 for the scene. Set the Exalt’s soak equal to half Finesse, round down,
before adding soak bonuses from other Charms. Opponents who can see the Exalt suffer a one-
die penalty when attacking the Exalt, or a three-die penalty if the Exalt has more Power than
them.
Celestial: The Exalt can use a special “Enervate” gambit by targeting pressure points. For 2
Power, the Exalt can disable an opponent’s eye (removing their ability to take the Aim action);
for 3 Power, an arm (causing them to drop their weapon or another held object); and for 4 Power,
both legs (preventing them from taking a reflexive Move). This effect lasts for the scene, or until
an enervated opponent receives medical care at difficulty 5.
Terrestrial: An opponent with less Power than the Exalt loses one soak and one Hardness
against the Exalt’s attacks.
Uncoiling Serpent Aura
Prerequisites: Close Combat 3, Essence 2, Athletics 3, Snake Form
The Exalt lashes out with a serpentine ribbon of Anima, striking an opponent from afar.
The Exalt may make unarmed or form weapon attacks out to short range, including clashes.
While in Snake Form, extend this to long range. If the Exalt initiates a grapple with this Charm,
they can immediately pull the grappled opponent into close range without needing to utilize the
Pull gambit.
Celestial: If an enhanced decisive attack damages an opponent, the Exalt may spend 1 mote on
Step 7 to poison the opponent with essence. This poison deals three damage per round, has
difficulty equal to the Exalt’s Fortitude, and has duration equal to the Exalt’s Finesse.
Terrestrial: The Exalt may spend 1 mote on Step 3 of an enhanced decisive attack to reduce the
opponent’s soak by three.
Tiger Style
Tiger style emulates the strength and ferocity of great cats. Martial artists stalk foes relentlessly
and put down weak opponents ruthlessly. Some Tiger martial artists tend toward cruelty or
arrogance, while others bear the patient confidence of an apex predator.
Tiger Weapon Tags: Concealable, Disarming, Natural. Tiger martial artists stay well-armed
with brass tiger claws, cesti, and katars. Unarmed martial artists rake opponents with bare-
handed claw strikes. When rushing, a Tiger martial artist may treat light form weapons and
natural weapons as medium weapons.
Tiger Armor: Tiger style is compatible with light armor.
Complementary Abilities: Tiger martial artists require some combination of Physique and
Stealth.
Crimson Leaping Cat Technique
Prerequisites: Close Combat 2, Complementary Ability Total 2
The Exalt runs down prey with startling speed.
Spend 1 mote on Step 1. If the character moves towards an enenmy: On a withering attack,
increase her accuracy by 1. On a successful decisive attack, knock the target prone. On any
successful rush, steal 1 Power from that opponent. If the character did not move towards an
enemy, reduce the cost of the Knockback or Knockdown gambits by 1 to a minimum of 1.
Celestial: If the opponent took the Full Defense action or moved away from the Exalt since the
Exalt’s last turn, the Exalt can rush an additional range band.
Terrestrial: If the opponent took the Full Defense action or moved away from the Exalt since
the Exalt’s last turn, the Exalt adds three dice to an enhanced decisive attack’s damage.
Tiger Form
Prerequisites: Close Combat 3, Complementary Ability Total 4, Crimson Leaping Cat
Technique
The Exalt assumes the predatory grace of the tiger, crouched low and prepared to pounce.
Commit 1 mote on Step 1 for the scene. After a successful withering attack, gain 2 additional
Power on Step 5. Ignore penalties for fighting prone. Whenever the Exalt succeeds on a rush
attack, they gain 1 Power.
Celestial: When the Exalt would take damage from a decisive attack, they may end Tiger Form
on Step 7 (spending the committed mote) and spend any number of Power. For each Power
spent, the Exalt gains one soak until the start of their next turn. This does not count toward the
usual limit. The Exalt can’t reactivate Tiger Form on their next turn.
Terrestrial: While the Exalt dominates a grapple, increase the Exalt’s soak and Hardness by
two.
Angry Predator Frenzy
Prerequisites: Close Combat 4, Essence 2, Complementary Ability Total 6, Tiger Form
The Exalt gives into raw predatory instinct, refusing to accept any insult.
Commit 1 mote on Step 6 of an attack against the Exalt to declare the attacker “prey.” The Exalt
can rush an additional range band against their prey. When the Exalt makes a decisive attack
against their prey, each extra success converts a damage die into an automatic success. The Exalt
can convert up to three damage dice this way.
Celestial: Whenever the Exalt successfully attacks their prey, the Exalt steals 1 Power or 1
Anima, if the prey has any.
Terrestrial: Whenever the Exalt damages their prey with a decisive attack, the Exalt regains
half the Power spent on that attack, round up.
White Reaper Style
The White Reaper is a slayer of armies, a long-armed destroyer that decimates foes with each
sweep of the scythe. Martial artists learn through brutal experience, for the style only truly shines
on the battlefield. The style is distinctive from a distance due to the signature white Anima halos
that Exalts bear.
White Reaper Weapon Tags: Balanced, Reaching, Natural. White Reaper martial artists
prefer sweeping weapons like scythes, greatswords, and staffs to scatter foes. When unarmed, the
martial artist relies on aggressive, sweeping strikes and leaps to keep opponents off-balance,
granting the martial artist’s attacks the reaching tag.
White Reaper Armor: White Reaper style is compatible with all armor.
Complementary Abilities: White Reaper martial artists require some combination of Integrity
and War.
White Reaper Form
Prerequisites: Close Combat 3, Complementary Ability Total 3
The Exalt rises into a grim and terrible battle posture, looking down upon foes like grass for the
scything.
Commit 1 mote on Step 1 for the scene. The Exalt doubles 9s on decisive damage rolls. Battle
groups lower their Defense by two against the Exalt’s attacks. Once per round, after dealing
damage with a decisive attack, the Exalt gains one brilliant white halo of temporary Anima.
Halos last for White Reaper Form’s duration and count toward the Exalt’s total Anima, but can’t
be spent like normal Anima. Each halo increases the Exalt’s Resolve by one. The Exalt can have
up to three halos at one time.
Lunar: Each halo increases soak by one. When White Reaper Form ends, the Lunar can
exchange their halos directly into Anima.
Bleeding Crescent Strike
Prerequisites: Close Combat 3, Complementary Ability Total 4, White Reaper Form
The Exalt’s brilliant corona trails their weapon, cutting bloody ribbons across the battlefield.
Spend 1 mote and any number of halos on Step 1. Double 9s on this attack roll, or double 8s if
attacking a battle group. For each halo the Exalt spends on an enhanced decisive attack, add one
die to the attack’s damage, or one automatic success if attacking a battle group.
Lunar: An enhanced decisive attack may target one additional opponent per halo spent,
calculating damage separately for each opponent. The Lunar must pay Power equal to the highest
Hardness of any targeted opponents. This counts as the Lunar’s flurry for their turn.
Flickering Corona Barrier
Prerequisites: Close Combat 3, Complementary Ability Total 4, White Reaper Form
The shimmering aura surrounding the Exalt protects her from harm.
Spend 1 mote and any number of halos on Step 2. The Exalt’s Defense increases by one, plus
one per halo spent. For each halo spent, the Exalt also reduces Defense penalties by one.
Lunar: Increase the Lunar’s soak by two per halo spent.
Snow Follows Winter
Prerequisites: Close Combat 4, Essence 2, Complementary Ability Total 6, Flickering Corona
Barrier, Bleeding Crescent Strike
The Exalt’s brilliant halos bloom with the bright scarlet of fresh blood, then sizzle away, sealing
the Exalt’s own wounds.
Commit 2 motes on Step 1. The Exalt must spend a halo each turn, and this Charm ends when
the Exalt can’t spend halos. For each halo spent this way, the Exalt heals one health level. While
this Charm is active, the Exalt immediately regains any halos spent on Bleeding Crescent Strike
and Flickering Corona Barrier.
Lunar: The Exalt’s blood-soaked Anima terrifies non-Exalted opponents. The Exalt’s Hardness
increases by two against these opponents’ attacks. Non-Exalted opponents reduce Hardness by
two against the Exalt’s attacks.

The Five Glorious Dragon Styles

The Immaculate Order’s signature martial arts make Immaculate monks some of Creation’s most
fearsome combatants. These five styles resonate with Dragon-Blooded Essence and help the
Immaculate Order police unruly spirits.
Air Dragon Style
The Elemental Dragon of Air is elusive, intangible, and omnipresent. She’s also devastating in
her sudden fury. Immaculate students of the Air Dragon undergo acrobatic training to help them
move lightly and silently, and master ranged weapons to challenge spirits from afar.
Air Dragon Weapon Tags: Natural, Thrown. Air Dragon martial artists wield throwing
weapons, though they’re just as capable in melee. Thrown weapons capable of returning (such as
chakrams and boomerangs) gain the pulling tag. Unarmed Air Dragon martial artists favor hand
chops and spinning kicks.
Air Dragon Armor: Air Dragon style is compatible with light armor.
Complementary Abilities: Air Dragon martial artists require some combination of Ranged
Combat and Athletics.
Cloud-Treading Method
The Exalt moves as lightly as a cloud, leaving hardly a breeze in her wake.
Prerequisites: Close Combat 2, Complementary Ability Total 3
Commit 1 mote on Step 1 for the scene. The Exalt moves over difficult terrain as easily as
normal terrain, and can flurry an attack and a sprint action.
Dragon-Blooded: The Dragon-Blood can move over liquid and vapor, as long as they end their
movement on solid terrain.
Air Dragon Form
Prerequisites: Close Combat 3, Complementary Ability Total 4
With a deep cleansing breath, the Exalt assumes the clarity and speed of the Air Dragon.
Commit 1 mote on Step 1 for the scene. The Exalt ignores environmental penalties to Defense
and adds one bonus success to all movement-based rolls. Increase the cost of all forced
movement gambits targeting the Exalt by one. When wielding a form weapon with Close
Combat, that weapon gains the balanced tag.
Special: Using this Charm allows the Exalt to access Air aura.
Dragon-Blooded: Concentrated withering attacks don’t reduce the Dragon-Blood’s Hardness if
the Exalt successfully evades them.
Lightning Strike Style
Prerequisites: Close Combat 3, Complementary Ability Total 5, Air Dragon Form
Lightning arcs from the Exalt’s Anima and strikes with explosive force.
Spend 1 mote on Step 1. This modifies a decisive attack, making it against all characters within
close range of a central target within the Exalt’s attack range. This attack never harms the Exalt.
The Exalt must pay enough Power to overcome the highest Hardness among all targets, and
calculates damage for each target separately. This counts as the martial artist’s flurry for their
turn. This attack cannot be clashed.
Dragon-Blooded: The Exalt may attack a central target one range band further than their
weapon’s usual range.
Wrathful Winds Roar
Prerequisites: Essence 2, Close Combat 5, Complementary Ability Total 6, Lightning Strike
Style
The Exalt unleashes a deafening roar accompanied by hurricane winds.
Spend 1 mote and 2 Power on Step 1. The Exalt’s roar creates a one-time environmental hazard
that affects all other characters within medium range of the Exalt, including dematerialized
spirits. This hazard deals damage equal to the Exalt’s Force + Essence, resisted at difficulty 5.
Dragon-Blooded: The Dragon-Blood may extend this Charm’s effects to long range.
Earth Dragon Style
The Elemental Dragon of Earth is forceful, but deliberate. Immaculate students undergo extreme
training for strength and durability, so they might stand toe-to-toe with unruly gods and
Anathema.
Earth Dragon Weapon Tags: Natural, Smashing, Two-Handed. Earth Dragon martial artists
wield weapons with significant impact and reach, such as tetsubos, warhammers, and great axes.
Even unarmed they emphasize impact with elbows, knees, and two-handed hammer blows. After
aiming, the martial artist may treat their natural weapons as medium weapons.
Earth Dragon Armor: Earth Dragon style is compatible with all armor.
Complementary Abilities: Earth Dragon martial artists require some combination of Integrity
and Physique.
Stillness-of-Stone Strike
Prerequisites: Close Combat 2, Complementary Ability Total 3
The Exalt beats an opponent with staggering force, as if wielding the weight of the world.
Spend 1 mote on Step 1 when enacting the Knockback or Knockdown gambit. Either gambit
costs 2 Power. If the gambit’s attack roll succeeds with at least two extra successes, the Exalt
may pay an additional 2 Power on Step 5 to enact both gambits at once.
Dragon-Blooded: An opponent struck with an enhanced gambit acts as if they’re standing on
difficult terrain until the end of the Dragon-Blood’s next turn.
Earth Dragon Form
Prerequisites: Close Combat 3, Complementary Ability Total 4, Stillness of Stone Strike
With slow, deliberate movements, the Exalt crafts a stable stance worthy of the Earth Dragon’s
grandeur.
Spend 1 mote on Step 1 for the scene. The Exalt’s soak increases by three. The Exalt also adds
two bonus dice when using Knockback or Knockdown gambits, or when attacking prone
opponents.
Special: Using this Charm allows the Exalt to access Earth aura.
Dragon-Blooded: The Dragon-Blood ignores wound penalties and increases Hardness by one.
Hungry Earth Strike
Prerequisites: Close Combat 4, Complementary Ability Total 5, Earth Dragon Form
The Exalt slams an opponent into the very earth.
Spend 1 mote on Step 1 of a grapple or decisive attack. If the Exalt initiates the grapple or deals
damage with the decisive attack, the opponent becomes partially trapped in the earth. A trapped
opponent can’t take movement actions and acts as if prone. To escape entrapment, the opponent
must succeed at an appropriate simple action with difficulty equal to the Exalt’s Fortitude.
Dragon-Blooded: The Exalt can target immaterial spirits with an enhanced grapple or decisive
attack. If an immaterial spirit would be trapped in the earth, the spirit instead immediately
materializes and can’t dematerialize or teleport away for the rest of the scene.
Shattering Fist Strike
Prerequisites: Close Combat 5, Essence 2, Complementary Ability Total 6, Hungry Earth Strike
Steel buckles before the Exalt’s inexorable might.
Spend 1 mote on Step 1 of a destructive feat of strength or a Disarm gambit. An enhanced feat of
strength adds five automatic successes. An enhanced Disarm gambit destroys an opponent’s
mundane weapon or forcibly deattunes an opponent’s artifact weapon. A forcibly-deattuned
artifact loses access to Evocations and its inherent ability for the rest of the scene unless the
wielder succeeds at an appropriate simple action at difficulty 7.
Dragon-Blooded: After defending against a melee attack, the Dragon-Blood may instead
activate this Charm on Step 8 to enact an enhanced Disarm gambit as a counterattack.
Fire Dragon Style
The Elemental Dragon of Fire weds abrupt violence and immense self-discipline. Immaculate
students perform intense weapon drills to the beat of music, that they might battle with speed and
grace.
Fire Dragon Weapon Tags: Balanced, Paired, Natural. Fire Dragon martial artists
traditionally wield paired weapons, such as short swords, scimitars, and daggers. If the martial
artist wields a matched pair of form weapons, their relentless attacks grant those weapons the
chopping tag. When unarmed, martial artists unleash rapid barrages of punches and chops,
punctuated with powerful kicks.
Fire Dragon Armor: Fire Dragon style is compatible with light and medium armor.
Complementary Abilities: Fire Dragon martial artists require some combination of
Performance and Athletics.
Searing Edge Attack
Prerequisites: Close Combat 2, Complementary Ability Total 1
The Exalt’s killing intent expresses itself through the overwhelming heat of each strike.
Spend 1 mote on Step 1. If an enhanced attack hits, the opponent loses 1 Power or 1 mote.
Dragon-Blooded: If the target opponent’s Power is lower than the Dragon-Blood’s, they lose 1
Power and 1 mote when hit. If they do not have motes, the Exalt gains 1 anima instead.
Fire Dragon Form
Prerequisites: Close Combat 3, Complementary Ability Total 4, Searing Edge Attack
The Exalt’s eyes glow with heat as they slip into a deadly, graceful dance.
Commit 1 mote on Step 1 for the scene. If the Exalt makes any withering attacks on her turn,
decrease the target’s Hardness by another 1 after all attacks resolve. When the Exalt successfully
defends against decisive attacks, the attacker loses 1 Power.
Special: Using this Charm allows the Exalt to access Fire aura.
Dragon-Blooded: Whenever the Dragon-Blood incapacitates a non-extra opponent or routs a
battle group, the Dragon-Blood gains 1 anima.
Fiery Blade Attack
Prerequisites: Close Combat 4, Complementary Ability Total 5, Fire Dragon Form
The Exalt attacks with speed enough to set an opponent alight.
Spend 1 mote on Step 1 of a decisive attack. If the attack deals any damage, the opponent
catches aflame. This fire is an environmental damage effect which deals three damage per round
and has difficulty equal to the Exalt’s Force. The fire lasts until someone puts it out with an
appropriate simple action at the same difficulty. Spirits suffer aggravated damage from this fire.
This may be used during a clash.
Dragon-Blooded: The Dragon-Blood may target immaterial spirits with this Charm. If an
immaterial spirit catches fire, they materialize for the rest of the scene.
Overwhelming Fire Majesty Stance
Prerequisites: Close Combat 5, Essence 2, Complementary Ability Total 6, Fire Dragon Form
The Exalt’s brilliant, burning aura cows even the bravest foe.
Commit 1 mote on Step 2 for the scene. Opponents in close range suffer a three-die penalty when
attacking the Exalt, opponents at medium range suffer a two-die penalty, and opponents at long
range suffer a one-die penalty. If the Exalt suffers damage from a close-range attack, the searing
heat lowers the attacker’s Defense by two until the start of their next turn.
Dragon-Blooded: Spend 3 Power to exhale a gout of flame that sears the Dragon-Blood’s
surroundings out to short range, as a simple action. This is a one-time environmental damage
effect that deals three damage and is resisted at difficulty 5.
Water Dragon Style
The Elemental Dragon of Water teaches that all things flow, from fights to essence to blood in
the body. Immaculate students learn to block, impede, and redirect these flows, to better exploit
every opportunity for victory.
Water Dragon Weapon Tags: Natural, One-Handed, Piercing. Water Dragon martial artists
wield cruel weapons ideal for in-fighting, like tiger claws and wind-and-fire wheels. Unarmed
martial artists strike in swift, adaptable combinations of punches, kicks, and claw strikes. These
combinations can fit any situation, granting the martial artist’s unarmed attacks the balanced tag.
Water Dragon Armor: Water Dragon style is compatible with light and medium armor.
Complementary Abilities: Water Dragon martial artists require some combination of Physique
and Sagacity.
Drowning-in-Blood Technique
Prerequisites: Close Combat 2, Complementary Ability Total 2
With a rapid barrage of strikes, the Exalt redirects bloodflow into an opponent’s lungs.
Spend 1 mote on Step 1 of a decisive attack. If the attack deals damage, the opponent’s wound
penalties increase by one. As long as the Exalt remains conscious, this effect lasts for the rest of
the scene but does not stack with itself. This Charm also redirects essence in a spirit’s body —
the above penalty stacks up to three times for a spirit.
Dragon-Blooded: If the enhanced attack deals damage, the opponent suffers a secondary pool of
damage dice equal to the wound penalty they had before the attack, applied on Step 6. This
damage pool ignores soak.
Flowing Water Defense
Prerequisites: Close Combat 3, Complementary Ability Total 4, Drowning in Blood Technique
The Exalt flows from every attack, becoming impossible to pin down or bind.
Spend 1 mote on Step 2. The Exalt’s Defense increases by one, or by two against attacks that
would limit or control the Exalt’s movement (e.g. grapples, the Ensnare gambit). If the attacker
suffers any wound penalties, increase the Exalt’s Defense by one again.
Dragon-Blooded: The Dragon-Blood may use this Charm on Step 1 of any attempt to escape
physical constraint. This adds automatic successes equal to Finesse.
Water Dragon Form
Prerequisites: Close Combat 4, Complementary Ability Total 5, Flowing Water Defense
The Exalt drops into a rolling stance, allowing offense and defense to flow together.
Commit 1 mote on Step 1 for the scene. The Exalt adds two bonus dice to attacks against
opponents with wound penalties. The Exalt may set soak equal to half Fortitude, round down,
before applying bonus soak from other Charms.
Special: Using this Charm allows the Exalt to access Water aura.
Dragon-Blooded: When the Dragon-Blood suffers damage from a decisive attack, they may add
their Fortitude to soak on Step 7. This does not count towards the usual limit. Once the attack is
resolved, this Charm ends and its committed mote is spent. The Dragon-Blood can’t re-activate
this Charm on their next turn.
Foe-Restraining Whirlpool
The Exalt’s swirling Anima draws opponents inexorably inward.
Prerequisites: Close Combat 5, Essence 2, Complementary Ability Total 6, Water Dragon Form
Commit 1 mote on Step 1 for the scene. Characters who begin their turn within medium range of
the Exalt cannot move reflexively, and must flurry an Athletics roll. This affects immaterial
spirits as well. Affected spirits materialize immediately, can’t dematerialize or teleport away, and
must spend 1 Power to move away from the Exalt. Enemies that successfully move decrease
their Defense by two until the start of their next turn. Enemies that stay within close range of the
Exalt suffer a two-dice penalty to all attacks.
Dragon-Blooded: The Dragon-Blood can end this Charm, spend its committed mote, and spend
2 Power on Step 1 to unleash a shout with the force of a tsunami. This is a one-time
environmental damage effect that extends out to medium range. This environmental effect
inflicts four damage and is resisted at difficulty 7. Characters who fail their roll are knocked back
one range band as described in the Knockback gambit (p. XX).
Wood Dragon Style
The Elemental Dragon of Wood oversees the cycle of life and death. Immaculate students
practice fasting and consume hallucinogenic drugs to discover esoteric mysteries about their
bodies, souls, and place in Creation.
Wood Dragon Weapon Tags: Natural, Reaching, Two-Handed. Wood Dragon martial artists
use finger-jabs and wooden-hafted weapons to strike pressure points. They can also wield bows
as if they were staffs with the melee tag. Wood Dragon Charms aren’t compatible with Ranged
Combat attacks.
Wood Dragon Armor: Wood Dragon style is compatible with light armor.
Complementary Abilities: Wood Dragon martial artists require some combination of
Awareness and Sagacity.
Soul-Marking Strike
Prerequisites: Close Combat 2, Complementary Ability Total 3
The Exalt strikes an opponent’s pressure points to inject a seed of essence.
Spend 1 mote on Step 3 of a decisive attack. If the attack deals damage, the Exalt invisibly marks
the opponent and knows the opponent’s rough location for the rest of the scene. The target
cannot benefit from concealment or cover while marked. If there is not cover or concealment to
benefit from, the target instead decreases their Defense by 1 until the start of their next turn.
Marked spirits find the experience painfully distracting and increase their wound penalties by
one.
Dragon-Blooded: The Dragon-Blood can target an immaterial spirit with an enhanced attack. If
the Dragon-Blood deals damage, the Dragon-Blood can clearly perceive and attack the spirit
while the mark remains.
Wood Dragon Form
Prerequisites: Close Combat 3, Complementary Ability Total 4, Soul-Marking Strike
The Exalt strikes their own pressure points, bringing their essence into perfect alignment.
Commit 1 mote on Step 1 for the scene. The Exalt increases Defense and Soak by one. Against
opponents marked with Soul-Marking Strike, increase these values by two instead. On the
Exalt’s turn, they can spend 1 anima on Step 1 to restore a health level. In addition, wooden form
weapons gain the flexible tag.
Special: Using this Charm allows the Exalt to access Wood aura.
Dragon-Blooded: The Dragon-Blood can deactivate this Charm on Step 1, spend its committed
mote, and spend up to three Power. For each Power spent, the Dragon-Blood or an ally within
close range regains one health level. The Dragon-Blood can’t re-activate this Charm until after
their next turn.
Unbreakable Fascination Exercise
Prerequisites: Close Combat 4, Complementary Ability Total 5, Wood Dragon Form
With sinuous, vine-like movements, the Exalt entrances foes until it’s time to strike.
Commit 1 mote on Step 2 for the scene. Opponents with Power lower than the Exalt’s Finesse
plus one suffer a two-die penalty to attacks against the Exalt. If any opponent in close or short
range misses the Exalt with an attack, that opponent must pay 2 Power to move away from the
Exalt until the Exalt’s next turn.
Dragon-Blooded: The Dragon-Blood may end this Charm on Step 1 and spend its committed
mote to make a decisive attack against all opponents within close range. The Dragon-Blood must
pay enough Power to attack the opponent with the highest Hardness among their targets, and
calculates damage separately for each opponent. This counts as the Dragon-Blood’s flurry for
their turn.
Soul Mastery
Prerequisites: Close Combat 5, Essence 2, Complementary Ability Total 6
The Exalt stands at the center of life and death and unleashes the Wood Dragon’s ultimate
judgment.
Spend 2 motes and 2 Anima on Step 1 of a Knockout gambit. The gambit can target any living,
spiritual, or undead entity, even creatures that normally couldn’t be knocked out. This gambit
cannot ever cost more than 10 Power. If the gambit would knock an Exalt out for five or more
rounds, or any other entity for three or more rounds, the Exalt may force a Dramatic Injury or kill
their opponent instantly. If the target is capable of taking Dramatic Injuries, the player
determines how the target takes the injury instead. If a target has a perfect effect that prevents
them from being rendered unconscious, this provokes a roll-off (p. XX).
Dragon-Blooded: If the Dragon-Blood kills a god, elemental, demon, or other spirit with Soul
Mastery, that spirit is permanently destroyed. This Charm sends slain living opponents and
ghosts directly to Lethe.

Sidereal Styles
Sidereal styles are the pinnacle of martial arts, kept secret from most Exalted. Only Sidereals can
develop and fully master these styles, though Abyssals, Getimians, Infernals, and Solars can
learn directly from Sidereal tutors. Terrestrial Exalted typically cannot access these Charms
without first undergoing some sort of unusual or extraordinary story event as determined by the
Storyteller and player. The style presented below is one of the more common and accessible
Sidereal styles.
Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Style
Through the Prismatic Arrangement of Creation, martial artists comprehend, master, and embody
the essence of creation’s flow through heaven and earth. Martial artists practice subtle
movements that seem effortlessly graceful, though in truth their forms express esoteric
geomancy and sorcerous essence flows.
Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Weapon Tags: Natural. Prismatic Arrangement of
Creation martial artists fight unarmed, with an economy of motion that belies the powerful
essence behind each strike. Whenever the martial artist has one or more Prismatic Arrangement
of Creation Charms active, they may treat their natural weapons as heavy weapons.
Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Armor: Prismatic Arrangement of Creation style is
incompatible with armor.
Complementary Abilities: Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Exalts require Awareness,
Embassy, and Sagacity to unlock their greatest techniques.
Four Magical Materials Form
Prerequisites: Close Combat 4, Essence 2, Sagacity 3, any three martial art Charms
With sorcerously-charged stances, the Exalt channels the classical magical materials through
their body.
Commit 2 motes on Step 1 for the scene. The Exalt chooses one of the following benefits, which
they may change reflexively on Step 1 on their turn:
• Jade: The Exalt’s stances express geomantic power. The Knockback and Knockdown
gambits cost 1 Power each. Reduce the cost of any other forced-movement gambits by 2.
• Moonsilver: Silvery essence ripples outward from the Exalt’s blows. The Exalt can
attack opponents from short range. She may initiate grapples or clashes from this distance.
• Orichalcum: The Exalt’s skin takes on a golden sheen. The Exalt’s Hardness increases
by two and their soak increases by three. Her Hardness does not decrease from concentrated
attacks.
• Starmetal: The Exalt’s hair and fingernails bear the gleam and sharpness of starmetal.
The Exalt’s unarmed attacks gain the Artifact tag, with an effective Artifact rating equal to the
Exalt’s Essence. Increase the Accuracy and Damage values of her unarmed attacks by 1. She
gains an inherent artifact property appropriate to her character.
Sidereal: The Sidereal is as unbreakable as the magical materials. If an attack would incapacitate
the Sidereal or render them unconscious, the Sidereal may deactivate this Charm in Step 7 and
spend its committed motes. The Sidereal remains conscious and negates all damage that would
remove their last health level. The Sidereal can’t reactivate this Charm on their next turn.
Soul Fire Shaper Form
Prerequisites: Awareness 3, Essence 2, Close Combat 4, any three martial art Charms
The Exalt embraces their place in the world’s invisible essence flows, breathing essence as
spirits do.
Commit 2 motes on Step 1 for the scene. While in this form, for the purposes of all static value
calculations, rolls, or costs, the Exalt treats her Essence as though it were two higher. This does
not grant additional motes. Additionally, the Exalt may use a special Disrupt gambit.
Disrupt (Essence plus two): Forcibly end a currently-active Charm, quality, or spell affecting
the Exalt’s target. A disrupted effect’s mote cost remains committed until the user’s next turn.
An already committed mote is spent at the end of this effect. The Exalt must target a specific
quality, Charm or spell, even if the Exalt doesn’t know all of the target’s effects.
Sidereal: Once per round, when the Sidereal successfully defends against an attack, they can
attempt a Disrupt gambit against the attacker as a counterattack in Step 8.
Getimian: Spend an additional mote when making the Disrupt gambit. By enacting the hidden
technique, Astrology Interruption Method, the Getimian suppresses the benefit of Weaving
Destiny (p. XX) or any Active Sidereal anima effect until the start of her next turn.
Games of Divinity Form
Prerequisites: Close Combat 4, Embassy 3, Essence 2, any three martial art Charms
The Exalt channels the addictive allure of the Games of Divinity, embodying perfection beyond
the dreams of gods.
Commit 2 motes on Step 1 for the scene. The Exalt calculates Defense with Embassy or Sagacity
instead of Athletics or Close Combat. Extras and spirits with Essence lower than the Exalt’s
can’t attack the Exalt. All other targets must flurry an Integrity roll to attack her. Once per round,
when the Exalt successfully defends against an attack, they may attempt social influence against
the attacker as a counterattack on Step 8.
Sidereal: The Sidereal’s decisive attacks add two automatic successes damage rolls against
opponents with intimacies toward the Exalt.
Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Form
Prerequisites: Close Combat 5, Essence 3, Complementary Ability Total 12, Four Magical
Materials Form, Games of Divinity Form, Soul Fire Shaper Form
The Exalt briefly vanishes from existence, then assumes the bearing of one who exists, gaining
perfect self-knowledge in the process.
Commit 2 motes on Step 1 for the scene. While this form is active, the Exalt cannot be ambushed
and enemies do not gain the benefit of Stealth-based concealment, and ignores any penalties to
Awareness rolls. She may spend 1 Power to cancel an enemy interrupt and take her action
instead. While in this form, she may use the form weapon benefits and tags of any other Martial
Art she knows as form weapons for any other style’s Charms, including this one.
Sidereal: When the Sidereal activates this Charm, she may commit an additional mote to
activate any one other form Charm she knows at the same time. She may change the benefits of
this form with a flurry on Step 1.
Getimian: When assuming this Form, the Getimian activates Demense-and-Manse Emulation.
This brings the Essence of their origin into Creation, manifesting as a five-dot Hearthstone upon
their brow, which grants an Evocation and effect that matches the Getimian's personality and
thwarted destiny. The Getimian treats anything up to extreme range as their domain.

Sorcery and Necromancy

If Charms are an expression of the Exalted's own Essence, sorcery is the expression of the
Essence of the world itself, shaped by a sorcerer's will. Sorcerers are courted by the powerful and
feared by the common folk, for they command the essential forces of reality, consort with
demons and spirits, and forge impossible wonders that transform Creation. Sorcerers codify these
expressions into spells, but also work great feats and projects called sorcerous workings.
Sorcerers are not commonplace across Creation. Rare are those who possess the necessary
understanding of Essence to master the secrets of sorcery, and of them, few are willing to make
the sacrifices required to initiate into the art. The Exalted are perhaps the foremost practitioners
of sorcery, but gods, powerful entities, demons, and talented mortals are capable of wielding
sorcerous miracles - though the process necessary to gain an understanding of Essence always
results in that mortal becoming something more than purely human. Across the land, sorcerous
academies exist to instill the methods of titanic Essence manipulation of the sort that forged
Creation itself.
Sorcery is divided into three circles of understanding and power — First, Second, and Third. In
the First Age, these were called the Terrestrial Circle, the Celestial Circle, and the Solar Circle,
for the Third Circle was the province of Solars alone. If spoken of at all in the Second Age,
sorcerers sometimes refer to these as the Emerald, Sapphire, and Adamant Circles.
Necromancy is the dark mirror of sorcery — many of the same principles of Essence
manipulation apply, but necromancy manipulates chthonic energies dredged from the
Underworld and the shattered nightmares of the Neverborn. Though a much rarer art than
sorcery in this Age and the last, necromancy still has many adherents in Creation, especially
among Ghost-Blooded, the children of congress between the living and the dead. If sorcery
manipulates life, necromancy forces death and unlife into the world. Like sorcery, necromancy is
divided into three circles, called Ivory, Shadow, and Void, respectively. Here too, though, the
Exalted persist as the foremost wielders of necromancy; only the Abyssal Exalted and the ancient
ghosts known as the Deathlords may master the bleak miracles of the Third Circle.
[THIS IS A ONE-PAGE REFERENCE]

Who Can Learn What?

Every Exalt can use their Essence to create miracles, but some — those willing to
initiate into the mysteries of sorcery and necromancy — come to a deeper
understanding of the cosmos. In addition to their usual Charms, they gain the ability
to cast Spells of devastating power and near-limitless variety.
Sorcery is an ancient practice, with traditions dating back to the First Age. It draws
on the elemental forces of Creation, the weave of Fate, and the ancient powers of
Hell to enact dramatic changes to the world. Sorcerers ascend through three circles
of power as they master the art, each purchased as an Initiation Charm.
The art of sorcery has a dark mirror in necromancy. Sorcery may be an act of hubris,
but necromancy is a vivisection — the naked world shaped by the tip of a knife. It
draws on the power of death, darkness, entropy, stasis, and the grim phenomena of
the Underworld. Like sorcery, it is divided into three circles of increasing power
and peril, accessed through their own Initiation Charms.
Not every Exalt learns sorcery; it’s an art that requires talent, time, and sacrifice.
Many Exalts have found great heroism and power elsewhere. Learning sorcerous
arts requires great arcane study, but even with their long lives no Exalt can master
every Circle of both sorcery and necromancy. Specific Exalted can only learn
certain Circles due to the power and nature of their patron. These are guidelines for
the Storyteller; if you want a player character to have a special artifact or technique
that allows them to use a higher Circle than normal, go ahead! Two such artifacts,
 the Emerald Thurible and the Mantle of the First Sorcerer, are presented on p. XX
and XX.
Solars may learn Third Circle sorcery and Second Circle necromancy. They are
unparalleled among sorcerers in Creation.
Dragon-Blooded may only learn First Circle sorcery. A rare few may learn First
Circle necromancy instead, but never both.
Lunars may learn the Second Circles of both sorcery and necromancy.
Sidereals may learn Second Circle sorcery and First Circle necromancy.
Exigents may learn the First Circles. Beyond that level depends on the Exigent;
Chosen of sorcery-inclined gods might be able to learn Second Circle, while a
singular Chosen of a god with a very particular purview might be able to learn Third
Circle. It’s rare for a god’s Essence to allow their Chosen to learn necromancy, but
it does happen among harvest gods and psychopomps, although never beyond
Second Circle.
Alchemicals may learn Second Circle sorcery (with initiations typically using a
physical object as a focus, such as God-Machine Weaving Engine). Rumors exist
of a forbidden way to initiate them into First Circle necromancy.
Abyssals, as dark mirrors of Solars, may learn Third Circle necromancy and
Second Circle sorcery.
Infernals may learn Third Circle sorcery and Second Circle necromancy.
Getimians may learn Second Circle sorcery and First Circle necromancy. Rumors
exist of internal alchemical transformations that allow an inversion of access,
granting them Second Circle necromancy and First Circle sorcery.
Liminals may only learn First Circle necromancy. A rare few may learn First Circle
sorcery instead, but never both.
Beyond the Exalted, most gods, elementals, and demons can use First Circle
sorcery, and particularly strong gods, greater elementals, or powerful demons may
use Second Circle. Only the Incarna or the direct fetich souls of the Yozis may use
Third Circle sorcery — though not all of either group do. For necromancy, many
ghosts and Ghost-Blooded may use First Circle, while ancient ghosts like the Dual
Monarchs or the nephwracks — dread spectres touched by the Whispers of the
Neverborn — may use Second Circle. Only the Deathlords use Third Circle
necromancy.

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Casting a Spell
Sorcerers and necromancers shape their Spells through raw force of Will, sharpening their
resolve until the world has no choice but to conform to their expectations. This requires a Focus
Will action; the character rolls any Attribute + Sagacity at a default difficulty of 3, adding any
extra successes to her current Will pool. A character can hold up to 10 Will at a time, but unspent
Will is lost at the end of the scene.
On their turn, a character can use an action to cast a Spell by spending the require Will. This
effort drains their Defense by one point for Spells of the first circle, two points for the second
circle, and three points for the third. At the start of each of her turns, this penalty lowers by one.
Initiation Charms
At some point in their training, the character’s understanding of sorcery or necromancy
crystallizes, allowing them to purchase an Initiation Charm. These can be chosen during
Character Creation like any other Charm, and offer a chance for the player and Storyteller to
establish how the character came to learn their art.
Sorcerous Initiation
See p. XX
Necromantic Initiation
See p. XX
Shaping Rituals
No two sorcerers walk identical paths. Even the most devoted students stray from their teachers,
discovering some divergence in their understanding of spellcraft. Each time the character
initiates into a new level of sorcery or necromancy, she gains a shaping ritual to reflect her
particular path to greater mastery.
Unless otherwise specified, each Initiation can only be used once per session. Will generated
from shaping rituals lasts until the end of the session and does not count towards the sorcerer’s
normal maximum.

Blazing a New Path

Players should feel free to work with the Storyteller to devise new Initiation rituals
that reflect their character’s journey. Most rituals describe a circumstance the
sorcerer can use to bank Will in advance, with more Will offered for difficult or
inconvenient tasks.

Bargain with Mara

You learned sorcery at the cloven feet of Mara, the demon-queen of love betrayed. When a
nontrivial character expresses unrequited love, admiration, or obsession for the sorcerer, she
gains three Will.
God-Machine Weaving Engine
A fusion of technology and mysticism manifests as two spinning adamant rings embedded in your
forehead, one inside the other, together granting access to reality-altering command protocols.
When the sorcerer incorporates local spirits or other subservient supernatural entities into
creating a spell, such as commanding fire elementals into a casting of Flight of the Burning
Raptor, gain three Will.
Ifrit Pact
You offered three labors to an Ifrit Lord — princes of fire — in exchange for the secrets of
sorcery. The sorcerer gathers strength from burning ritual offerings. Tokens grant one Will;
valuable sacrifices grant two; and exotic, unique, or powerful sacrifices generate three.
The Jasmine Gems of Mishiko
The gems holding the thoughts and lessons of the first Lunar sorcerer have come into your
possession, teaching you to channel Essence into spells. Mishiko’s spirit appears at dawn or
dusk to pose a seemingly nonsensical riddle to the sorcerer. Answering this twilight kōan
correctly (or correctly recognizing the lesson it means to impart) involves a Sagacity roll at
Difficulty 3 and grants the sorcerer two Will.
Raksi’s Teachings
The secrets of sorcery revealed themselves to you under the cruel tutelage of the Lunar Queen of
Mahalanka, a fabulous and ruined city of sorcerers. When a nontrivial character expresses fear
of the sorcerer, or upon success of an intimidation roll against them, gain three Will.
Soul-Perfecting Elixir
You found enlightenment at the bottom of a cauldron, concocting awareness-expanding potions.
When the sorcerer has the opportunity to retrieve complicated or unusual ingredients and render
them into an elixir through intricate procedures, she gains two Will.
Student of the Heptagram
You learned sorcery at the Heptagram, the preeminent institution of sorcerous learning in the
Realm and the origin of most Realm sorcerers. Students of the Heptagram learn to recognize
dragon lines and the hidden geomantic mandalas in the world, using them to puissant magical
effect. When the sorcerer spends a dramatic scene studying the local geomancy of an area, she
gains two Will.
The Talisman of Ten Thousand Eyes
A great gleaming ruby with ten facets, set in a rune-etched orichalcum amulet, allows you to
channel baleful sorceries. The sorcerer may imbue a fraction of their Will inside the Talisman,
banking one Will from a Focus Will action to use later. This Will persists until it’s used. The
sorcerer may also use Evocations of the Talisman (see p. XX).
Theanoan Method
You apply divine numerology and written sigils towards calculating the strange, unintuitive
truths of Creation. The sorcerer gathers strength from arcane mathematics. As long as they’re
able to inscribe some element of the spell they’re casting as a reflexive action, they gain one
additional Will for every Focus Will action they take to a maximum of three per session.
Wyld Wisdom
You wandered the nightmare-tides of the Wyld in search of enlightenment. When the sorcerer
wakes from slumber, her player may ask the Storyteller for a strange taboo — something she
must not do or, alternatively, must always do. The impact of this taboo determines how much
Will she gains, up to three. If she violates the taboo, she loses all Will and the difficulty of Focus
Will actions increases by two for the rest of the session.
The following are examples of necromancy-focused shaping rituals:
Disciple of the Void
An intricate tattoo made of softly-moaning soulsteel adorns your body and recites an Old Law —
the principles which governed the Underworld before the Neverborn — to grant you sinister
insights. The necromancer gathers strength from death; use the conditions for the Abyssal
Advantage Cruel Banquet (p. XX) but gain Will instead of motes. An Abyssal necromancer may
only benefit from one or the other once per scene.
Half-Souled
You forged a small portion of your higher soul into soulsteel, leaving a token physical remnant
and a spiritual hollow filled by necromantic energies. Incorporating the physical representation
of your sundered soul into the ritual of casting a spell grants one Will.
Skull Diarist
Ancient and inhuman skulls, adorned with necromantic runes, constantly babble with soft
whispers and teach you the secrets of the dead. When necromancer makes a sacrifice of a living
thing and anoints the skulls with blood, gain one Will for sacrificing minor or trivial creatures;
two for important personages; and three for powerful characters.
Student of the Raiton Academy
You learned necromancy at the Raiton Academy, an ancient and preeminent school based on
Nightfall Island. The Academy gleans arcane insights from understanding the history of death.
When the necromancer spends a dramatic scene to understand the funerary customs and overall
history of death in an area (plagues, battles, major burial grounds, etc.), gain two Will.
Wanaasan Exorcist
The ancestor-ghosts of the West reveal their drowned secrets to you. When the necromancer
spends a scene fully immersed in a body of water to commune with her ancestor-ghosts, she
gains two Will.
Summoning
Sorcerers have the right and the means to conjure powerful servants and allies, binding them to
service or to a task. When bound to service, the character becomes an Ally to the sorcerer,
obeying their commands to spirit and letter in good faith for up to a month. When bound to a
task, the sorcerer names a specific job to be completed, and the character must attempt it to the
best of their ability until the task is complete — which can be an exceedingly long time indeed,
since hundreds of demons stationed by the Solars still stand guard over the treasures of the First
Age, long since forgotten. Necromancers cannot bind elementals or demons, but instead bind
ghosts and the ancient unliving things in the Underworld.
Summoning is a venture (see p. XX) requiring many hours of work around a binding circle
sealed by various arcane reagents. Elementals can be summoned at any time, but summoning
rituals for ghosts and first circle demons can only be done at night, second circle demons can be
summoned only under a new moon, and third circle demons can be summoned only once per
year during the five days of Calibration; this prohibition can only be circumvented through
extreme acts of will (see common obstacles). As the final obstacle at ritual’s end, the sorcerer
must make a (Force + Sagacity) roll against Difficulty 3 for first circle summonings, Difficulty 5
for second circles, and Difficulty 7 for third circles to break the summoned entity’s will and bind
them. Binding a target to service or a task contrary to its nature can increase this Difficulty.
A successful sorcerous summoning creates an elemental out of ambient Essence and unmakes it
when the service or task is complete or summons a random first circle demon of the specified
type into Creation at the sorcerer’s circle. A successful necromantic summoning brings a specific
person’s ghost within the necromancer’s circle. At higher levels, the sorcerer must individually
summon specific second and third circle demons, while nephwracks and the terrible undead
behemoths known as hekatonkheires need only be loosely described by the necromancer to be
called forth.
Prerequisites: Sagacity 4, Sorcerous or Necromantic Initiation (one purchase for First Circle
demons or elementals, and ghosts; two purchases for Second Circle demons, and nephwracks;
three purchases for Third Circle demons and hekatonkheires).
Time scale: One hour
Base obstacles: 4 (including final obstacle)
Common obstacles: Creating Summoning Circle (Difficulty 4); Using Appropriate Ritual Items
(Difficulty 3); Detailing the Nature of Service (Difficulty 5); Applying Specific Task Instructions
(Difficulty 5); Correctly naming specific ghost (Difficulty 3); Correctly naming Second Circle
Demon or ancient ghost (Difficulty 5); Correctly naming Third Circle Demon or Hekatonkhire
(Difficulty 7); Incorrect Celestial Alignment (Difficulty 7)
Common advantages: increase Ally’s dice pools upon success (1 success, maximum +3);
increase service time (3 successes per month’s time, maximum +2 increases); allow for free
materialization (3 successes); summoned entity has additional powers (5 successes, maximum +2
powers)
Common consequences: summoned entity is unbound and hostile; binding and personality
template are flawed, allowing for bad faith actions; ghost or demon cannot materialize in
Creation
Universal Spells
While some Spells are unique to either sorcery or necromancy, most are shared between the two,
albeit with varying aesthetics — when cast through necromancy, a cirrus skiff might take the
form of an Underworldly ash-cloud, while a river transformed into fire burns bright white and
orange for sorcery and a sickly blue-green for necromancy.
Like Universal Charms, Universal Spells often include Modes which modify their function based
on whether they’re cast using Sorcerous or Necromantic Initiation. Characters who can use both
sorcery and necromancy of the required circle may freely choose which Mode to use.
First Circle Spells
First Circle spells far outstrip the minor magics of even the most talented mortals. They are
potent supernatural effects.
Cirrus Skiff
The sorcerer calls down a cloud to serve as their personal ferry.
Spend 4 Will. The cirrus skiff can carry up to 1,000 pounds of cargo and passengers, and travels
as fast as a horse. It can fly up to a mile off the ground, and disappears if the caster travels
underground, falls asleep, or is rendered unconscious. When used as part of a travel venture (p.
XX), it reduces the number of obstacles by one.
Conjuring the Azure Chariot (Sorcery): This spell summons a bright blue sphere eight feet in
diameter around the sorcerer and her possessions. In addition to reducing the number of
obstacles, the chariot remains unaffected by any obstacles related to inclement weather. The
sphere only persists from dawn until dusk, and may not be cast at night.
Death of Obsidian Butterflies
Sculpting Essence into volant black glass, you unleash a torrent of razor-sharp obsidian
butterflies.
Spend 5 Will. Make an attack as a medium ranged weapon that affects every ranged band up to
long range, so long as it is within the character’s field of perception. This attack reduces Heavy
cover to Light and destroys Light cover. The player may optionally treat the character’s
remaining Will as though it were Power for the purposes of making a decisive attack. The
butterflies remain after the spell is cast, creating difficult terrain.
Flight of the Brilliant Raptor (Sorcery): The sorcerer conjures an eagle-sized bird of diamond
and ruby flame that possesses the Flame tag. The bird explodes when it reaches a target within
long range, making an attack against everything in the target’s close range and creating an
environmental hazard equivalent to a burning building that persists for three rounds.
Flesh-Sloughing Wave (Necromancy): The necromancer unleashes a wave of ivory light
teeming with fanged ghostly creatures, ripping flesh from bone while leaving inorganic
structures intact. This wave emanates from the necromancer in every direction up to medium
range, adding the Piercing tag to the attack and ignoring all cover, Light or Heavy.
Flying Guillotine
You make the Sign of the Hooded Headsman, conjuring a barbed silver-bladed chain that flashes
towards a target until it wraps around their neck.
Spend 4 Will. A Flying Guillotine manifests as an artifact ranged weapon (long range, +2
Accuracy, +2 Damage, 3 Overwhelming) for a single attack. If this attack reduces the target to
Incapacitated, they may not accept a dramatic injury to avoid decapitation. The player may
optionally treat the character’s remaining Will as though it were Power for the purposes of
making a decisive attack.
Hound of the Five Winds
You conjure an enormous wolf from raw air Essence — a fine mount, companion, guardian, and
bloodhound.
Spend 3 Will. The Hound of the Five Winds is treated as a predator beast (p. XX), adding
tracking to its primary pool. The hound is large enough to use as a mount, immune to fear, and
never tires. It also gains a one-success bonus on scent-based tracking rolls. It serves loyally and
eagerly for one day before disappearing.
Bone Lion (Necromancy): The necromancer conjures a skeletal lion with diamond-fire eyes. It
will not bear her as a mount, but it will serve for up to seven days before decaying, hunting its
quarry without rest.
Lightning Spider
Long, barbed limbs of electricity sprout from the sorcerer’s back.
Spend 2 Will. The caster can scuttle across walls and ceilings at her usual movement speed and
cannot be knocked prone. Where terrain allows, the Exalt can climb around environmental
hazards, thereby avoiding damage. This lasts until the caster sleeps or falls unconscious.
Theft of Memory
Placing a crystal on the target’s skin, you coax out the memory of a single event or character —
trapping it within the shimmering facets.
Spend 3 Will. Make a Finesse + Sagacity or Stealth roll to steal the character’s memories of an
event or a character in up to the previous year. The standard difficulty is 5, but stealing
especially important events or characters increases the difficulty by one, or two if the target has
Essence 5 or higher. The target cannot recover the memory until the crystal is destroyed.
Shade Prison Amulet (Necromancy): When used on a ghost, the necromancer may extract up
to her Essence times 10 years of memory and explore them while touching the crystal, using
Resistance + Sagacity to sift through and find specific details.
The Violent Opening of Closed Portals
You stomp the ground, forcing your Essence into a structure to throw it open to you.
Spend 3 Will. Any portal within a single structure the sorcerer touches or stands inside that is
blocked by materials less durable than fine steel is violently destroyed. Windows shatter, wooden
doors are smashed to splinters, and even iron bars are blasted from the rock. If there are no
barriers to breach, the spell creates one, making a roughly sorcerer-sized hole.

Applying an Area of Effect

When casting a spell that applies to an area of effect (such as all targets within close
range), the character rolls once and applies the successes against the Defense of all
targets. Then they must spend Power equal to the highest threat. If this varies and
the sorcerer cannot afford to pay the Power cost of the highest threat, they are
exempt, and the spell targets the next highest. Add the lowest success margin, plus
Power spent, plus any damage bonus from the spell and roll once. Apply the total
number of successes against each individual character’s soak.
Example: The Lunar Weyna Who-Sees-Much casts Death of Obsidian Butterflies
and rolls 12 successes, against four Dragon-Blooded, each with Defense 5 and
Defense 4. The leader’s hardness is 6, and Weyna has 8 Power. She spends 6
Power, plus the lowest 7 success margin and rolls 5 successes. Flying Guillotine
makes that 7 successes. Two of the Dragon-Blooded have Soak 5 and take two
damage. The other two have Soak 3 and take four damage.

Second Circle Spells

Spells of the Second Circle perform unbelievable feats from making communication impossible
to traveling across Creation in mere instants.
Cantata of Empty Voices
You make the Sign of the Tomb-Harp, creating crystalline entities that sing a deadly song and
resonate on a frequency inimical to life.
Spend 7 Will. Every living being within long range of you begins weeping and suffers a -2
penalty to dice rolls and suffers unique environmental damage (1A/round, duration 10 rounds,
Difficulty 5) as the piercing song causes deep hemorrhages and internal bleeding.
Silenced Whispered Prayers (Necromancy): Instead of causing damage, the dark harmonies of
the Underworld sing once and fall silent, removing any benefits conferred by the Hearthstone
Merit for a night and a day. Any prayers made by those within range are stifled as they are
uttered, for the same duration.
Hideous Confusion of Tongues
You make the Sign of the Shattered Tower, conveying a contagious linguistic curse to all within
range.
Spend 5 Will. A burst of turquoise energy alights on the tongues of everyone within long range
as a unique environmental hazard (no damage, duration special, Difficulty 5 to resist with
Integrity). Anyone so affected speaks, writes, or communicates only gibberish from that moment
onward, though they do not realize this at first. Moreover, people who hear, read, or witness the
glossolalia of those cursed become cursed themselves. The effect lasts for a day since the
infliction of the curse (and written items lose their power in this time), though sufferers who
originally may find themselves cursed again in turn unless they isolate themselves.
Ivory Orchid Pavilion
A white flower emerges from the ground and shapes itself into a grand palace complex.
Spend 7 Will. The conjured palace provides food and comfortable lodging for up to one hundred
guests. Those within its walls gain a two-success bonus against hostile mind-altering effects and
ignore all penalties from pain, wounds, or illness. After five days, the palace disappears in a puff
of white petals.
Ivory Razor Mausoleum (Necromancy): The palace is a construct of elegant bone. It provides
sustenance fit only for creatures of death. Rather than protect against mind-altering effects, the
grounds count as a shadowland, allowing guests to enter or leave to Creation or the Underworld
at their pleasure.
Shadows of the Forgotten Past
Spectral images play out a farce of what has occurred here before.
Spend 6 Will. The sorcerer can replay any event that has happened at their location within a
decade. If they know the event or the period to be replayed, this is automatic; otherwise, this
requires an Act Under Pressure venture (p. xx) using Sagacity, with each obstacle representing
an hour of sifting and searching.
Golden Shadow Frieze (Necromancy): The necromancer may retrieve an event up to a century
old, but can only those that happened at night, in complete darkness, or within shadowlands or
the Underworld.
Wheel of the Turning Heavens
When the sky is dark, you create a brilliant display of Essence in the heavens, distracting all who
view it.
Spend 9 Will. When the sorcerer casts this spell towards a darkened sky, it creates a dazzling
illusion out of Creation’s constellations (or, for necromancy, overlays them with the alien stars of
the Underworld). This display lasts for two hours. Any sentient creatures who can perceive the
display forget and forgo their current actions, staring in mute awe at the sky. Exalts and other
Essence wielders may break free with a Force + Integrity roll, Difficulty 6.
Third Circle Spells
Spells of the Third Circle reshape the face of Creation itself or create atrocities that level cities.
Atrocious Fire Transformation
Even the ocean may burn.
Spend 10 Will. A body of water (or portion thereof) up to 10 miles wide bursts into flame,
burning for five terrible hours. The blaze travels downstream on moving water, and the area up
to a thousand feet below the surface becomes a deadly boil. The sorcerer is immune to the
flames, as is their vessel.
Mirage of Protective Shelter
Pulling a shroud of phantasmagoria across their sanctuary, you protect it from outsiders.
Spend 7 Will. An area up to five miles wide becomes wrapped in powerful illusions. Intruders
must make a Difficulty 5 Fortitude + Integrity roll to enter the area or else become hopelessly
lost. Even on success, they treat it as difficult terrain and travel at half speed. This adds an
obstacle to any travel ventures (p. XX), or applies a significant narrative delay to any Storyteller
characters traveling through a protected area. This protection lasts for up to a year.
Mirage of Anguished Shadows (Necromancy): Rather than difficult terrain, the area endangers
intruders with dark phenomena as an environmental hazard (Difficulty 5, 1L/ten minutes).
Rain of Doom
You summon a supernatural storm of vast proportions to blight the land.
This spell requires a magical working to prime the area, which involves tracing a circuit
(magically-aided or mundane) around an affected area over the course of a full day. If the
sorcerer manages to complete their circuit by dusk of the following day, spend 9 Will. A rain of
corrosive venom falls from the jet-black clouds in the sky, while sickly green lightning lashes the
ground. The venom falls in sheets from dusk until dawn, creating an environmental hazard
within the area equivalent to a severe thunderstorm (p. XX) and inflicting contact poison damage
(p. XX) to anyone caught outside. Any material not made of a Magical Material is corroded and
permanently destroyed by exposure to the rain; nothing but stunted scrub and strange, poisonous
giant mushrooms will grow on the land washed by the rain.
Blood Monsoon (Necromancy): The rain is sanguine, and the lightning is similarly crimson;
while the environmental hazard is the same, the sun is blotted out, ghosts become material in the
rainfall, and exposed animals become permanently maddened. The land is diseased after the rain
stops, while the pools of blood mystically animate and attract undead for miles around.

Sorcery Spells
Spells exclusive to sorcery deal in purification, fertility, and life, drawing on Creation’s primal
elements and raw vitality. As a general rule, sorcery is also better suited to safely transforming
and enhancing the sorcerer and her allies — Creation’s living Essence is more mutable and
forgiving than the Underworld’s.
First Circle Spells
Sorcerous First Circle spells create powerful effects from Creation’s natural elements.
Flames of Unyielding Purity
You spread a web of colorless fire that burns only the impure.
Spend 3 Will. Toxins, diseases, and other physical corruptions are burned out at up to medium
range, purifying spoiled food or water and sterilizing any wounds. Illnesses are not cured but
cannot be spread for the next day. Inherently impure creatures, such as undead or plague-gods,
suffer a one-time environmental hazard (Difficulty 3, Damage 1L).
Silent Words of Dreams and Nightmares
Staring into a mirror and brandishing an object linked to another person, you gain power over
their dreams.
This spell requires a venture to acquire a scrap of clothing, piece of hair, drop of blood, or
similar symbolic link to someone else. After success in the venture, spend 3 Will. The next time
the target sleeps, they experience an especially vivid dream created by the sorcerer, making a
remote social influence action to incept an idea or belief into their target. The target may not add
Intimacies to their Resolve to resist this influence, though they may still add Virtues. The
symbolic link burns to ash at the end of the spell, necessitating the acquisition of another one
before it may be cast again.
Spoke the Wooden Face
You transform a living tree into a conduit for long-distance communication.
Spend 4 Will. The sorcerer must carve a likeness of her own face into a living tree (this requires
no roll). For as long as the tree lives, the sorcerer may spend a mote to see and hear from the
carved image, and speak with her voice through the tree. A sorcerer can create as many wooden
faces as she pleases, and a tree can host more than one wooden face; an ancient grove on the
Blessed Isle contains many such trees and faces that are now forever silent.
Unbreakable Bones of Stone
You sing the Irresistible Song of Stone, but you do so off-key, prompting local earth elementals to
correct the song deep in your bones.
Spend 4 Will. The sorcerer’s eyes become granite, her skin becomes ashen and cold, and her
weight dramatically increases as her bones turn to stone. Reduce all dice penalties associated
with wounds by one (to a minimum of zero); the sorcerer adds two to her soak and her dice pools
for feats of strength, and she does not take damage from falling regardless of height.
Wood Dragon’s Claw
One of your arms transforms into a twisted bough of vine, muscle, and thorns.
Spend 3 Will. The sorcerer treats her transformed arm as a medium melee weapon with the
Natural, Pulling, and Reaching Tags. She can spend 1 mote to extend the limb out to medium
range for an action to make an attack or gambit. Lasts until released.
Second Circle Spells
Second Circle Sorcery weaves esoteric magic to facilitate communication over impossible
distances, cause feats of incredible destruction, or summon unheard of power.
Magma Kraken
Combining the Prayer to the Kraken with the Sign of the Burning Earth, you cause red strands of
volcanic Essence to erupt from the ground, striking at your foes.
Spend 7 Will. You cause the ground within close range to erupt with magma tentacles, writhing
and smashing any who oppose you, with the broken earth making everything up to long range
into difficult terrain. This creates an environmental hazard equivalent to lava (p. XX); on the
sorcerer’s turn, the tentacles may initiate a grapple with a dice pool of 12 against any foe within
long range of the original casting point, inflicting environmental damage as long as the tentacle
controls the grapple.
Travel Without Distance
Gathering a blazing corona of Essence around yourself, you teleport with a flash of light.
Spend 7 Will. The sorcerer may choose to bodily appear in any location they have seen before
within a radius of twenty leagues, whether through their own eyes or through scrying. Besides
the necessary time to Focus Will, this teleportation occurs across two turns — one to leave and
one to arrive. This spell cannot override certain wardings, which must be renewed every few
days. Once per session, the sorcerer may teleport their Circle along with them, so long they’re
within short range of the sorcerer.
Unity of Dreams
Binding your dreams with another’s using the Sign of Mercury, you may communicate while
sleeping.
Spend 5 Will. The sorcerer must cast this with one or more participants up to five, who must all
be present when the spell is cast. Afterwards, the participants may commune in a shared dream
space, communicating while they are asleep regardless of distance. If the participants have
Intimacies towards one another, the shared sense of community adds two to their Resolve against
influence actions to weaken the intimacy. This effect lasts for five months. At any time when all
participants are asleep, one of the dreamers may ask for the others to join him; if all agree, they
jolt awake moments later in the same location as the requestor, though this ends the spell
prematurely.
Third Circle Spells
Spells of the Third Circle of Sorcery call upon the powers of things greater than Creation: the
most powerful demons of Malfeas, or the strength of the Incarnae themselves.
Chariot of the Blazing Sun
Sending a helix of Solar and worldly Essence to Heaven, you conjure a chariot pulled by one of
the Unconquered Sun’s own stallions.
Spend 7 Will. The chariot can carry up to one ton of cargo and passengers, and can travel to any
point in Creation at rapid speeds, even from other realms such as Malfeas. At the end of the
journey, the horse and chariot disappear in a blaze of sunfire visible for miles around. When used
as part of a travel venture (p. XX), the total number of obstacles cannot exceed three, and the
total amount of downtime spent on the venture is never longer than five hours.
Total Annihilation
Uttering the secret name of Ligier, the fetich soul of Malfeas, you unleash an orb of pure
destruction.
Spend 10 Will. The sorcerer may target any location up to extreme range and hurl a fiery crystal
sphere of emerald Essence to the location. Anything within long range of that location, sorcerer
excepted, explodes in a towering verdant blast of energy that destroys anything in its path.
Anyone within that area suffers from a unique environmental hazard (5A/round, duration 10
rounds, Difficulty 12 to resist with Integrity or Physique), while anything within extreme range
of the blast suffers a shockwave (1A/round, 2 rounds, Difficulty 9 to resist with Integrity or
Physique). Trivial and non-significant characters simply perish. This spell typically results in a
smoking crater and shattered countryside.

Necromancy Spells
Spells exclusive to necromancy deal in the dark secrets of the Underworld and the all-consuming
Void. In general, necromancy has an advantage in conjuring and animating minions without the
need for rituals and bargains — with only a thought, dust and bones may become a legion of
willing soldiers. Transformations and blessings often come with dire prices or undesirable
consequences.
First Circle Spells
First Circle necromancy spells create effects from the Underworld’s elements, and enable access
to that dark realm.
Door of the Dead
Your hands trace a bleeding portal in the air, opening to the lands of the dead.
Spend 4 Will. The necromancer opens a doorway to the Underworld that remains open for five
minutes. It leads to a roughly equivalent area in the Underworld chosen by the Storyteller based
on the necromancer’s current location — though the two worlds are not contiguous outside
shadowlands. The location is always safe and secure, at least for the character’s arrival — the
spell never leads the necromancer into an ambush, or into immediate danger.
Five Gifts
Anointing a willing ghost with five drops of blood, you let them experience the world without
senses dulled by death, as if they were still alive.
Spend 5 Will. Any ghost so anointed gains two dice to all dice pools and may manifest within a
shadowland for free; this lasts until the next sunrise. They also get an Intimacy (Devotion)
towards the necromancer, and remember forevermore the taste of life from the blood, giving the
necromancer a one-success bonus on persuade actions.
Raise the Skeletal Horde
With a gesture of upraised arms, you command the dead to rise and obey.
Spend 4 Will. Every corpse, human, animal, or otherwise within medium range without
Enormous or Legendary Size animates as mindless dead (p. XX). They count as a battle group
with an equivalent number of Command dots equal to the summoner’s Essence plus one, though
the group may be far smaller in areas that have few corpses, at the Storyteller’s discretion. The
battle group has Poor Drill, but is Mindless. The walking dead burst forth from topsoil graves or
simply lurch to their feet in an action. They crumble to dust at the end of the scene if the spell is
cast in daylight, or until dawn if cast at night.
A second purchase of this spell with Second Circle necromancy grants an enhanced spell called
Arisen Dead Legion, which costs 7 Will, improves Drill to Regular, adds Command equal to
Essence plus two, and summons undead from a vast distance, making the availability of corpses
a non-issue.
Stones Worn Smooth
Shaping one arm into a spectral claw, you gesture towards a nearby ghost, who is compelled to
throw themselves upon your talons. Grasping their pale pink heart, you crush it into a black
diamond.
Spend 3 Will. This spell targets a nontrivial ghost the necromancer has bound through a
summoning, and they cannot resist. This spell instantly dissipates the ghost (who may reform
normally and is still bound to you) and grants the Hearthstone Merit (••• normally, ••••• for
heroic or significant ghosts) of Abyssal aspect. This stone confers a base power determined by
the nature of the wounded ghost but does not confer Evocations.
Trawling the Dark Waters
Drawing violet threads of Essence from the Underworld, you weave a net across a large area,
revealing any ghosts.
Spend 3 Will. This spell affects any unmaterialized ghosts or Underworld denizens within long
range. They immediately become visible to the caster; the necromancer may then spend a mote
to force all affected to materialize, even if they cannot normally do so.
Second Circle Spells
Second Circle necromancy spells corrupt the elements of the world and twist them toward
darkened aspects, or allows fine control over souls and the workings of reincarnation.
Gentle Call of Lethe
You mark a living person’s forehead with a stylized cicada and utter the Five Words of Release,
binding their soul to the cycle of reincarnation.
Spend 2 Will. You may mark a living person’s body and higher soul; when they die, the cicada
rune shines again, and they do not become a ghost but are instead reincarnated.
By inverting the rune and painting the symbol with honey, blood, and graveyard earth, this spell
becomes the Rune of Sweet Passing, ensuring the target will become a ghost when they perish.
The necromancer is automatically aware when the target dies, in either case.
Shield of Shattering Bones
Crimson Essence flows to your outstretched hand, then expands outward to touch nearby
undead, dispersing any wounds you suffer to their dead frames.
Spend 6 Will. This spell targets a battle group of unintelligent undead up to Size 3 within
medium range of the necromancer. Any damage the necromancer would suffer is born instead by
the battle group, instantly transferred to them by bands of shining crimson. A hit from a
warhammer would cause a skeleton to shatter, while a sword’s slice to the guts instead spills
those of a nearby animated corpse. This spell lasts until the battlegroup is destroyed or until the
next sunrise, whichever comes first.
Slumber of the Wandering Shade
You sleep while a fragment of your soul is free to walk the world.
Spend 4 Will. The necromancer controls a spectral facsimile of herself while their true body
slumbers. This facsimile has only a single mote and suffers the usual drawbacks for being a
ghost (p. XX) but is otherwise identical to the character. The player may end this effect
automatically, sensing any danger to the necromancer’s true body.
Third Circle Spells
Third Circle necromancy calls upon the bleak oblivion of the Void itself.
Barless Gate
You step into a mirror, then explode out of another mirror in a cloud of dark Essence.
Spend 7 Will. This requires the necromancer to know the location of a destination mirror exactly;
they need only see it and know that it is there. The necromancer may step through a mirror and
arrive at their target location, so long as it is on the same plane of existence (shadowlands count
as both Creation and the Underworld).
Inauspicious Citadel
Cutting the Last Sign of the Labyrinth into your own heart, you hurl yourself into a desecrated
pit and rise up atop a fortress of black iron erupting from the Underworld.
After success on a magical working to prepare a ritual pit, requiring the blood sacrifice of
hundreds, spend 10 Will. This citadel of black iron, basalt, and obsidian is adorned with the
mazy marks of the Labyrinth and features every manner of comfort suitable for housing an army
or small city. It functions as a shadowland. The lowest chamber holds a shrine to the Neverborn,
rendering the citadel an ideal location for necromantic workings. Besides instantly creating a
stronghold on short notice, the citadel contains its own perverted geomancy; it functions as a
primary merit Hearthstone with accompanying manse properties. The unique power and
Evocation conferred are designed by the player and Storyteller and should fit the character.
A character may only have on Inauspicious Citadel active at any time. Casting the spell in a new
location consigns the old, and all within, to the Void.
Sorcerous Workings
While a spell is a discrete magical effect, sorcerous workings are great feats and projects of
sustained supernatural power. As described on p. XX, sorcerous workings are a specific type of
magical working venture. Magical workings typically only last for the duration of the venture —
a weather-witch’s ritual may create an unusually strong and sudden storm on a clear day, for
example, but a storm that dissipates normally. Sorcerous workings allow characters to reshape
the world permanently and perpetually through their occult skill, enacting blessings, curses, or
transformations. Through sorcerous workings, sorcerers may perform all manner of miracle,
from renewing the fertility of a barren harvest field, to creating life in a vat of alchemical
reagents, to raising a city up from its foundations to rest in the sky.
Sorcerous workings consist of three components: Ambition, Means, and Refinement. Despite
the name, necromancy can create appropriately bleak sorcerous workings, and they can achieve
roughly similar effects. As a rule of thumb, sorcery is better at healing, nurturing life, or
summoning spirits and demons, while necromancy is better at curses and hexes, manipulating the
Underworld or shadowlands, and summoning, creating, and controlling the undead or souls.
Attempting to use sorcery to approximate necromantic effects, or vice-versa, is subject to
Storyteller agreement and may result in increased Ambition, Means, or Refinement needed to
complete the working.

The Limits of Sorcery

Some things are beyond even sorcery’s power. The Unconquered Sun and Luna do
not permit themselves to be moved by sorcery, for example, but there are other,
more fundamental limits. The purpose of these restrictions is to create a sense of
consequence, change, and finality in the world of Exalted regardless of personal
power; there is no going back and no staying the same.
Immortality Has A Catch: No one lives forever. Sorcery or necromancy can make
a character immortal or unkillable, but never in an unconditional, guaranteed
fashion. There may be periodic rituals or sacrifices necessary to renew the
immortality, or a magically removed heart may instantly kill its owner if harmed,
or the sorcerer may be vulnerable to death outside of a specific regional area. The
more potent the invulnerability, the more dire the means necessary to maintain it.
No Resurrection: Dead is dead. A necromancer can bind someone’s ghost into
their corpse and restore them to a semblance of vitality, or prime a reincarnating
soul to perfectly remember their past life; sorcery may transform a dead or dying
person into a new form of existence, or imprint memories upon a simulacra or vat-
grown clone, but all of these will permanently alter a person in body and soul. The
dead cannot truly come back as they were.
No Time Travel: What happened, happened. Sorcery can be used to slow localized
time to a crawl or create an area of looped time, while necromancy can shape
scattered memories and psychic phenomena to give the dead a voice in the present,
but neither can be used to travel into the past or rewrite past events. Sorcery can’t
be used to see infallibly into the future, though limited rituals of astrology and other
auguries exist.
Ambition
After the character has chosen their intention, the Storyteller determines the Circle needed to
match the sorcerer’s ambition. Without the proper level of initiation, the sorcerer cannot attempt
the ambition.
First Circle workings are generally rooted in transforming, enhancing, or weakening pre-
existing elements of the natural world, rather than directly invoking supernatural forces. First
Circle workings augment the natural properties of a small region or protects it against a mundane
threat or nuisance but does not completely overwrite the nature of that area through magic.
Ambition Examples: create or bind magical entities capable of performing mundane chores;
create a new, but mundane, form of life; enchant roads to guide lost travelers; work minor
magical mutations or physiological alterations, such as changing sexual characteristics or
growing wings; instill human-level intelligence in a plant, animal or object; ward a chamber
against scrying or mundane intrusion and pests; cause a field to always deliver bountiful harvests
or a spring to always produce fresh water; curse a farm, orchard, or family with infertility; create
a rift between two realms of existence that allows communication but not transportation;
engender the creation of a shadowland in a place of mass death; create a sacred place where the
dead may commune with the living outside a shadowland or during the day; or enchant the edge
of a shadowland so that it always exits into Creation or the Underworld.
Second Circle workings are outright miracles of supernatural power that rewrite physical laws
of nature in a localized area or instill arcane might into mundane objects or beings.
Ambition Examples: Create a telepathic bond between two characters; enchant a town or small
city with persistent illusions; ward a chamber against teleportation or other magical intrusion;
maintain sorcerous infrastructure; alter weather on a permanent scale, such as extending the
length of harvest season by a month every year or making winters exceptionally brutal; transfer
memories from a ghost to a living mortal, or vice-versa; instill human-level intelligence in a
structure and granting it the capacity to rearrange itself at will; create a new form of supernatural
life; curse a family line or a city-state’s farms with infertility; open or close a permanent portal
between two realms of existence, such as a small shadowland or a faerie ring that leads to the
Wyld; access the memories of a soul’s past life; hide a living person’s fate in the stars of the
dead; recreate the memory of a destroyed artifact that can never leave the Underworld; imbue a
loyal subject with supernatural might or the ability to channel Essence; cleanse, or imbue, the
taint of the Void within a ghost; or enchant a battleground to always form walking dead and
hungry ghosts regardless of funerary rites.
Third Circle workings rewrite the laws of reality or create new ones. Their power and scope
range from affecting entire cities to adjusting the fundamental laws of the cosmos. It can alter
souls, permanently change the boundaries of worlds, or bend time and space.
Ambition Examples: Completely transform a region of land into a different climate, such as
transforming deserts into rainforests or mountains into smooth and arable land; create new
sorcerous infrastructure; make a city defy laws of reality, such as moving it into the sky or
altering its borders so that it is bigger on the inside; enchant a city-state-sized region to forever
change the nature of death within it, such as designating particulars of how souls reincarnate,
transforming the dead into elementals, or shunting souls to a custom afterlife; transform the
nature of a supernatural being, such as remaking a demon into a god; lay a potent curse on a city,
region, or group of people that can only be broken under conditions you specify; or create a
potent supernatural being from powerful forces, such as elemental displays or the writhing
nightmare narratives of the Underworld.
Means
The Means of a sorcerous working are arcane resources brought to bear on the venture beyond
the sorcerer’s own power. A sorcerous working always requires at least one Means. Each
additional Means beyond the first mitigates one consequence of a failed obstacle roll in the
venture. The following are sample Means:
• Complementary Spells: The sorcerer knows a spell whose purpose is related to the working
she is trying to perform.
• Cooperation: The assistance of another sorcerer of the same Circle the Ambition requires, or
an initiated group of sorcerers using one lesser Circle.
• Extra Time: Additional effort and time spent on the working — deliberately increasing the
time scale by one increment.
• Exotic Components: Rare reagents, rare artifacts, or esoteric materials that anchor the magical
effect the sorcerer is attempting. The head of a rare behemoth, an orichalcum lamp burning
bright since the First Age, snow from the peak of the Imperial Mountain, or massive salt-
diamonds dredged from the bottom of the ocean are all good examples.
• Sorcerous Infrastructure: Sorcerous laboratories and cathedrals are the result of multiple
sorcerous workings and innumerable magical ones. In the First Age, they were rare and enabled
the creation of unimaginable wonders; in the Second Age, they are all but lost to the world.
Refinement
A powerful enough sorcerer can simply will a city into the air with enough raw focus; getting the
city to a specific height, undamaged, unmoved by wind, with a habitable clime and installed
safety precautions is a great deal harder. The player and character must account for the individual
ventures that encompass a sorcerous working; the more of these completed, the finer and more
precise the ultimate result of the working. Refinement ventures contribute towards the overall
effect, chosen individually by the Storyteller. A single completing venture will always
accomplish the ambition, provided the character has the requisite initiation, but the details and
ultimate efficacy of the working are up to the Storyteller. Degrees of detail or specificity to the
working requires a total of three ventures to complete, but this still leaves some degree of detail
to Storyteller control. Five total ventures will yield whatever precise effect the player wishes.
The Storyteller should spread these ventures out over the course of an adventure or allow the
player to accomplish them during downtime. Refinement ventures are short, and often magical
workings, but not always; planting a hundred thousand acorns in a barren wasteland will
certainly aid in making a forest grow on the spot, and allow an enterprising character to craft
groves, meadows, and perhaps even shape the resulting Essence into forming a demense.

Storytelling Sorcerous Workings

Sorcerous workings are meant to be grand feats of magic, but they do take a lot of
effort for even a simple working. In theory nothing stops a sorcerer from preparing
a five-venture working every time to maximize Refinement, but practically, this
takes up a great deal of time — even abstracted time — and magical resources tied
up into individual ventures that can be used for still other ventures or more
mundane, practical things. A character seeking to transform a dying comrade into
a new form of existence barely has time for one venture, much less four more. Feel
free to impose a time and Refinement limit based on the working’s necessity.
Still, Storytellers, err on the sides of permission and leniency. Even the single
Refinement venture needed to complete the working should roughly accomplish
the player’s goal without serious, obvious flaws — there’s time enough for long-
term issues in the working to become apparent later during a more dramatically
convenient moment.